Team Rynkeby Foundation director: We will simply have to work even harder to reach our targets.

A failed IT project has resulted in a less than auspicious start to the 2019 season for the Team Rynkeby Foundation. The IT challenges have effectively delayed the Team Rynkeby collection work by six weeks.

A month and a half of the new Team Rynkeby season had already passed before the largest Nordic charity cycling team was able to register its first sponsors and commence collections for the benefit of critically ill children two weeks ago.

The problems were caused by the launch of a new IT platform going far from according to plan.

While the Team Rynkeby Foundation struggled to solve the problems, days turned to weeks, and the IT problems continued a full month and a half into the season.

The Team Rynkeby Foundation Director, Carl Erik Dalbøge, can now start to develop an overview of the effects of the IT problems relative to the collection work.

- We have had a really rough start to the season. Luckily, however, we can also note that our participants have not been slacking while we have been plagued by IT problems. The participants have obviously been busy getting sponsorship agreements on paper, and these are now being registered in the system, says Carl Erik Dalbøge.

Hard work will be requiredBut the participants are up against it.

By 18 January 2019, all the clothing sponsorship agreements must be concluded in order for the sponsor logos to be added to the Team Rynkeby outfits before production starts.

Currently, Team Rynkeby participants have signed up around 500 clothing sponsorships.

This means there is some way to go yet to match the 1,142 Gold and 28 Platinum sponsors whose logos were on last year’s Team Rynkeby outfits.

- The IT problems have delayed us when comparing with last year, and if we do not wind up the turbo now, I would also expect this to affect our final collection results. I am still hopeful, however. The teams demonstrate an impressive level of energy and we shall simply have to work harder as the 18 January deadline approaches in order to achieve our target, says Carl Erik Dalbøge.

There is a minimum cost of DKK 20,000 to have a company logo featured on the Team Rynkeby outfit this season, and the entire sponsorship income is donated without deductions to the organisations collaborating with the Team Rynkeby Foundation in the individual countries.

This year, Team Rynkeby consists of 2,100 cyclists and 500 service volunteers distributed across 54 local teams in six countries.